Embedding a Values Rich Culture through Education

Education of the Head and the Heart has been a unique feature of the educational approach at The Kindergarten Starters, Dubai. KGS has always reached out to give back to the community both local and global, particularly in times of need. The collection for the Syrian Refugees, the Rice Bucket Challenge collecting 6000 kilograms of rice for the homeless at Gaza, the 1000 blankets and warm clothes collection as part of the UAE Compassion drive, the collection of stationery for the remote schools in India, the Al Jalilia Foundation campaign, the 100,000 AED donated to Dubai Cares towards Primary Education, and the most recent Carnival collection of 25,000 AED for Red Crescent are some of the charity drives organized and initiated by the school community throughout the year.

In 2014, the Varkey Foundation partnered with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to support the Schools for Asia Initiative. Through this initiative, access to quality basic education was provided to thousands of children in Nepal, India, Vietnam, Philippines and Papua New Guinea. Through the generous support of GEMS students, parents and staff a whopping AED 1,485,348.62 was raised through charity activities in all GEMS schools. The Varkey family had set up an initial fund matching scheme at the launch of the initiative to support the GEMS schools in their fundraising. Through this scheme the Varkey family had matched AED 408,129.25. Thus the total sum of donation to UNICEF from the Varkey Foundation was AED1,893,474.87. KGS is proud to have contributed 154,632 AED, which forms a large chunk of this donation for the Schools for Asia initiative.

The ethos and culture of giving and sharing will continue at KGS, instilling in children the most important universal values and accomplishing the most essential purpose of education, namely being a responsible global citizen. The KGS philosophy reiterates what Aristotle said, “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.”